Bordertown

Having been without live television for years, I am forever coming across series that have come and gone without my having ever heard of them.

One such series that I am currently watching is Bordertown. There have been several movies and at least a couple of other series by that name, but the one I am watching now was a half-hour weekly series that began in 1989 and ran for three seasons. I had television then, but I was busy being a paramedic and still hadn’t heard of it.

Apparently though, it was still rated highly when it was cancelled due to high production costs. I’m not sure why it would have had high production costs though, since it’s a typical western.

Set in the 1880s, the series is centered on a United States Marshall and a Canadian Mounted Policeman who are sharing jurisdiction of a town that straddles the US/Canadian border, probably Montana/Saskatchewan or Alberta, but I don’t think the series gives a precise location.

It’s an entertaining show although it’s not particularly inventive, choosing instead to employ a host of familiar themes. The show plays with the combination of drama and comedy that was seen in Maverick, the Marshall and the Mountie play off of one another like the Odd Couple, and there is a pretty female doctor who is their mutual love interest.

People are usually shot in the arm or the leg and, although there is an occasional death, there isn’t any blood.

Still, it’s a good show and I am binge-watching all 29 hours of it.

 

There was a movie with Martin Sheen and Jennifer Lopez by that name which was set on the US/Mexico border, and I think Fox has an animated series by that name set on the southern border, but this is on the US/Canadian border. It's probably available through streaming somewhere, but I bought the series on DVD through Amazon.com.